Indiana Elite Thunder Wins Platinum Championship
The Northwest Blazers Orange and the Indiana Elite Thunder squared off in the Gauntlet Platinum Championship to see who would end the Summer as the best team.
The Blazers jumped out to a 9-3 lead behind the sharp shooting of Ashlyn Wallace (5'6 -2021).
After the Blazers quick start Indiana Elite did a good job of disrupting the Blazers offense and made them walk the ball up the court. Indiana also made life difficult for Talia Van Oelhoffen (6'0 -2021) and only trailed the Blazers by two, 18-16 with 5 minutes left in the first half.
After a back and forth 1st half we were all tied up at 28 with Cameron Grant (6'1 -2020) leading Indiana Elite Thunder with 10 points and Maisie Burnham (6'0 -2020) leading the Northwest Blazers Orange with 7 points.
The 2nd half started the same way as the first ended in a tug of war with no team not being able to hold more than a two point lead for more than a possession.
With a timeout at the 8:40 mark of the 2nd half the Northwest Blazers led Indian Elite 46-40, which was the largest lead in the 2nd half up to that point. Talia Van Oelhoffen for the Blazers started to heat up and Jayda Noble (5'11 -2020), a Washington commit, was leaving her mark as the best all around player in the game with her contributions on both ends.
Indiana Elite Thunder had a quick 6-0 run using defense led by Sydney Watkins (5'9 -2020) to tie the game at 46 with 5:15 left in the 2nd half.
With 1:55 left Indiana Elite Thunder led the Northwest Blazers Orange 50-48. As Indiana increased their defensive intensity their lead grew to four, 54-50 with 48.5 seconds left in the Gauntlet Platinum Championship. Talia Van Oelhoffen of the Northwest Blazers Orange hit a quick bucket to cut the lead to two with 22 seconds left. Kristian Young (5'5 -2020) of Indiana Elite Thunder hit one of two free throws to increase their lead 55-52. After a Northwest Blazers foul, Indiana Elite increased their lead to 56-52 with 11.8 seconds remaining.
Congratulations to the Indiana Elite Thunder, the Champions of the Gauntlet Platinum division with a 58-52 win over the Northwest Blazers Orange. Indiana Elite Thunder was led by Cameron Grant and Katelyn Young with 15 points a piece.
Jayda Noble NW Blazers
Sydney Watkins Indiana Elite Thunder